


To Tame or To Conquer

by HuiLian



Series: Dick and Dami Week 2019 [3]
Category: DCU (Comics)
Genre: ???? - Freeform, Angst, Gen, like for real Talia?, the part where Talia put a body-controlling tech on Damian's spine
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-10
Updated: 2019-04-10
Packaged: 2020-01-11 00:00:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 788
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18418619
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HuiLian/pseuds/HuiLian
Summary: Damian knows that bracing himself for impact will not do much, not with a fall from this height. He finds himself doing it anyway.One. Two. Three. A fall from a thirty-story building will take about four seconds. Damian closes his eyes and waits for impact.





	To Tame or To Conquer

**Author's Note:**

> For Dick and Damian Week 2019, Day 3: Injury  
> The title from the two meanings of Damian name. It makes no sense, but oh well.

Damian knows that bracing himself for impact will not do much, not with a fall from this height. He finds himself doing it anyway. 

One. Two. Three. A fall from a thirty-story building will take about four seconds. Damian closes his eyes and waits for impact. 

The impact does not come. What comes instead is a hand on his waist, yanking him back up. What comes instead is Grayson. 

If it were the first days of their partnership, Damian would have shouted at him, claiming he could very well save himself. Now though, Damian just clings to Grayson and thanks every god he is not sure he believes in anymore. 

(He believes in Grayson saving him. He does not particularly believe in any other individual, may they be human or god, to save him.)

Grayson swings them up to the top of another building as Damian tries to wrangle his traitorous heart in line. Increased heartrate is a sign of weakness. Control your own body. Damian waits for Grayson to let go of him. They are safe on top of the building, after all. Well as safe as one can be inside of Gotham. Grayson does not let him go, though. Damian finds himself reluctant to let go as well. 

Damian is not one to dwell on near death experiences, usually. There are too many of them to waste time dwelling on. But out of nowhere, tonight, he finds himself wondering what would happen if Grayson had not caught him. Death, most probably. If not death, then blunt force trauma of practically every part of his body, including his spine. 

His spine. The spine that had been broken before. The spine that, even now, has League technology imbedded inside. The technology that has allowed Deathstroke to use his body to fight Grayson. The technology that Mother herself planted. 

Damian shivers. The loss of control of his own body was bad enough, but to fight Grayson with it? It was worse. 

If Grayson had not caught him in time, and assuming he survived, would Grayson sent him back to Mother to be 'fixed’?' 

"Batman?"

"Yeah, Robin?" 

"Would you send me back to Mother?"

"Hmm? What brings this up, Robin?" Grayson's voice is neutral, but Damian can feel Grayson's hold on him tighten. Damian knows all about Grayson and Mother’s feud. He sometimes wishes that Mother and Grayson can be more than civil, but it is just his own wishful thinking. Neither of them will back down. He should be grateful that they can _be_ civil with each other.

"You sent me back, once. When my spine was injured. You sent me back to Mother." Damian will deny every accusation in the morning, but just for now, just inside the safety of his own mind, Damian will admit that he was whining. What kind of child whines at being sent back to his mother? (Damian.)

“We don’t have the technology to heal you. Talia has.”

“She put that technology to control my body. I would rather my spine still be injured.”

“Don’t say that, Damian,” Grayson snaps. “Don’t say that. You are not expendable.”

“Better have an injured spine than to have my body be used to fight you,” Damian retorts back.

“Hm?”

“Mother used my body to fight you, don’t you remember that?”

Grayson sighed. “Of course I remember that, Robin. But your well-being is still more important.”

“No, it’s not.”

“Yes, it is. That is not up for debate, Robin.”

What? No. Damian escapes from Grayson’s hold so that he can look Grayson in the eye. Or as well as he can with the cowl on Grayson’s head. “My well-being is more important? Than your own?”

“Yes.”

No, but that will be a debate for another day. “And is my well-being more important than control after my own body? I recall you have given me several lectures on that subject.”

“On having control after you own actions, Robin. Your point stands, though.” Grayson put his hand on Damian’s cheek. Damian allows him to. “Have I not done something about that tech?”

“No.”

Grayson closes his eyes. Damian guesses he closes his eyes, anyway. Damian should berate him for dropping his guard while on patrol, but for once, Damian keeps silent. “We’ll get right to that. I can ask Cyborg, or Oracle.” Grayson tilts his head. “Do you want to finish this up, or keep going?”

Damian considers it. As Robin, he should brush this off and finish the patrol. As Damian al-Ghul, he should never had fallen in the first place. But Damian Wayne wants to go back to the Tower and watch movies with his big brother. “Can we finish this up?”

“Sure, Robin. Let’s go home.”

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> check out my tumblr (huilian.tumblr.com)


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